A recent study by researchers at George Washington University’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the International Council on Clean Transportation found that air pollution in residential areas surrounding newly built e-commerce warehouses has increased significantly.
As online shopping continues to grow, the construction of new warehouses to store store inventory is increasing freight traffic, leading to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution.
The study also found that the negative impacts disproportionately affected communities of color.
Warehouses cause more traffic pollution
The research is one of the first of its kind, and delves into the link between warehouses and freight traffic. The main emission examined in the study – nitrogen dioxide – is a key ingredient in the formation of smog. NO2 has also been linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma.
Much of the data the researchers used in their analysis came from a European Space Agency satellite. In particular, the researchers found that communities downwind of the warehouses experienced nearly a 20 percent increase in NO2 pollution compared to communities downwind.
The increase in air pollution is effectively undoing the improvements the Clean Air Act has made in recent years.
Data from nearly 150,000 large warehouses across the U.S. showed that the share of Asian and Hispanic residents in areas with the most warehouses was nearly 290% and 240% higher, respectively, than the national median. The figures also illustrated a 117% increase in the number of new warehouses built between 2010 and 2021.
In addition, one-fifth of the nation’s warehouses were concentrated in just ten counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Alameda (California), Harris, Dallas (Texas), Cook (Illinois), Miami-Dade (Florida), Maricopa (Arizona) and Cuyahoga (Ohio).
Community activists have long fought to limit the construction of hangars and other industrial and large-scale agricultural sites near residential areas, advocating for electric transportation to reduce local emissions. But the study has finally given them the ammunition they need to make their case to regulators and government agencies.